Healthcare and Social Services

On February 28, 2019, House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) sent a letter to her House colleagues announcing that earmarks, or Congressionally-directed spending, will not be utilized in the FY 2020 Appropriations process. Additionally, the Committee announced FY 2020 subcommittee deadlines for members of Congress to submit FY20 Appropriations and/or Programmatic requests between March 28--April 4, 2019.

On February 21, 2019, the Treasury Department’s Office of Economic Policy published in the Federal Register its Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) to invite applications from State and local governments for awards under the Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results Act (SIPPRA), which was signed into law on February 9, 2018.

Five federal regulatory agencies have approved a long awaited final rule that makes it easier for mortgage lenders to accept private flood insurance policies. The rule is expected to take effect on July 1, 2019.

On January 14, President Trump signed into law the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act (H.R. 7279), a bipartisan law that will provide communities across the country with the ability to develop integrated plans to bundle and prioritize important federal stormwater and wastewater standards under the Clean Water Act (CWA), which has the ability to save taxpayers and local governments billions of dollars while upholding important environmental protections.

Now is the time to get prepared! The next round of grant funding under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction (LHR) grant program is quickly approaching with a potential release of the Notice of Funding Opportunity occurring in January or February of 2019.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao announced the full list of recipients of $1.475 billion in fiscal year 2018 funding for 91 individual grants under the Department’s BUILD surface transportation grant program (formerly known as TIGER grants).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to release in the next couple of months Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Brownfields Grants Programs. As part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, the Brownfields program was reauthorized and funding doubled to $200 million for fiscal years 2019-2023. TFG co-hosted a Brownfields Grant Webinar with eCivis on October 2, 2018; a link to the webinar is here.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) today issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) Program that includes more than $318 million in grant funding from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018.

FRA seeks to collaborate with private, state and local investments on rail projects. Grants will assist projects that improve intercity passenger and freight rail transportation safety, efficiency, and reliability. This program does NOT fund positive train control systems deployment; PTC was funded under a separate NOFO published in May.

The CRISI grant program directs at least 25 percent of available funds towards rural communities. Also, selection preference will be given to projects with a 50% non-federal funding match from any combination of private, state, or local funds. The Department will also consider how well the project aligns with key Departmental objectives including supporting economic vitality; leveraging federal funding; preparing for life-cycle costs; using innovative approaches to improve safety and expedite project delivery; and holding grant recipients accountable for achieving specific, measurable outcomes.

FRA will host a webinar on August 8, 2018; a link to the webinar is here.

Applications for capital projects funding under this solicitation are due no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT, up to 60 days after the date of publication in the Federal Register. The NOFO is here.

The US Department of Transportation released a guidance document on completing a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) associated with BUILD grant applications.The PDF document is here.

DOT notes the information provided in applicant BCAs will be used to help ensure that the available funding under the programs is devoted to projects that provide substantial economic benefits to users and the nation as a whole, relative to the resources required to implement those projects. DOT staff has noted in application debriefs that applicants should utilize BCA information within the application narrative to strengthen the case for the project rather keep the BCA and the narrative separate.

For 2018 BUILD Transportation Discretionary Grants, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) is offering a series of special topic webinars that delve into various aspects of the BUILD application process. These webinars are recorded and are a resource for anyone considering applying to BUILD this year or those preparing a BUILD application, as the webinars come from the funding source and share the expertise of USDOT to prospective applicants.The webinars are here.

On June 5 the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Appropriations Subcommittee (THUD) approved its FY2019 appropriations bill including funding for transportation infrastructure development.

The bill provides $71.4 billion in discretionary spending for DOT, Housing & Urban Development, and other agencies.Funding for the entire bill is $1.1 billion above FY2018 enacted levels. The bill will go to the full Senate Appropriations Committee on June 8.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) has notified transportation-related committees of Congress which 26 projects it has selected to receive approximately $1.5 billion in grant funding under the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program. The program is a competitive grant program that was included in the “Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act” (FAST Act) to provide funding for nationally significant highway, bridge, and freight projects.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is issuing a final rule describing new, experimental procedures to encourage increased project management flexibility, more innovation in project funding, improved efficiency, timely project implementation, and new project revenue streams for public transportation capital projects. A primary goal of this final rule is to address impediments to the greater use of public-private partnerships and private investment in public transportation capital projects. FTA anticipates using the lessons learned from these experimental procedures to develop more effective approaches to including private participation and investment in project planning, project development, finance, design, construction, maintenance, and operations.

The final rule’s effective date is June 29, 2018.The final rule is here.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announced the availability of $25.8 million in grant funds to support comprehensive planning associated with new fixed guideway and core capacity improvement projects.Applications are due July 23, 2018.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney expressed misgivings about several transportation provisions included the House version of the FY 2019 Transportation HUD (THUD) Appropriations bill passed last week in subcommittee.

The Department of the Treasury is steadily making progress on writing guidance for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and have announced a tentative release schedule: June/July for the passthrough deduction, late summer/early fall for the new limitations on interest expense, and December for the big international provisions (e.g. GILTI and BEAT).

In the meantime, the Committee on Ways and Means is contemplating a second round of tax cuts, or Tax Reform 2.0 as they like to call it. They are aiming to make permanent the new individual provisions as well as full expensing for businesses.

The Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported on May 17th that US scheduled passenger airlines employed 2.8 % more workers in March 2018 than a year ago. This was the highest monthly full-time equivelent (FTE) employment total (434,243 FTEs) since December 2004 (436,909) and the 53rd consecutive month of exceeding the same month of the previous year.

The first round of the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant program will provide $1.5 billion for infrastructure projects – three times the amount available in most rounds of TIGER.Notwithstanding this increase, one might caution would-be applicants to think about other words that could be used to fill out the BUILD acronym: Better Understand Impacts (of) Limited Dollars.The Administration’s emphasis on rural projects and limits on awards per state, coupled with the perception of a major increase in awards by way of increased funding availability, could potentially – and beguilingly – result in more competition and tighter funding for urban projects.

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